HORTSCIENCE 40(2):484–485. 2005. 1980. In December 1981, each seedling was assessed for powdery mildew susceptibility, Nectria canker under natural infection condi- A New Scab-resistant Apple: ‘Ariane’ tions and also scored for burrknot production. François Laurens,1 Yves Lespinasse, and André Fouillet The 135 most susceptible individuals were discarded and in April 1982, the 92 remaining UMR GenHort INRA/INH/UA, Centre INRA Angers, BP60057, 49071 individuals were planted on their own roots in Beaucouzé Cédex France the orchard. In total, 29% of these trees showed Additional index words Malus ×domestica, Venturia inaequalis, disease resistance, apple breeding scab symptoms in the fi eld, much higher than the 5% susceptible plants normally present in Abstract. ‘Ariane’ is a new apple cultivar carrying the Vf gene of resistance to Venturia the fi eld after an INRA scab screening. That inaequalis. It was derived from a cross made in 1979 at INRA in Angers, France between confi rms that many individuals escaped infec- two advanced selections. The seed parent was a hybrid between the Vf cultivars ‘Florina’ tion in the greenhouse tests. and ‘Prima’ and the pollen parent was derived from an open pollination of ‘Golden De- In 1984 fi rst bloom occurred in this progeny, licious’. ’Ariane’ matures during the same period as ‘Golden Delicious’. ‘Ariane’ fruit with15.6% of the trees fl owering. Fruit assess- has blushed bright red skin, with 75% of the fruit surface colored. It is medium sized. ment started in 1985 using 20 fruit descriptors. The fl esh is fi rm and crisp; it has excellent fl avor and eating quality with a high level of In 1988, the original tree of ‘Ariane’ was selected sugar and acid. Storage ability is long. Trees have to be thinned intensively, chemically by Y. Lespinasse and A. Fouillet and tested, under and manually, to get good size fruit. ‘Ariane’ shows low susceptibility to powdery mildew the clone number X6407, in the national varietal and fi re blight. ‘Ariane’ has been selected by the SARL (Ltd) NOVADI and the S.A.S. testing stage A and stage B trials coordinated by POMALIA to be developed as the fi rst cultivar of a “ Les Naturianes” series. Since 2002, INRA and Ctifl (Centre Interprofessionnel des about 95,000 trees of ‘Ariane’ have been planted in France. Fruit et Légumes) on different sites in France (Laurens, 1996). It was then released in France ‘Ariane’ is a new scab-resistant cultivar (Fig. 1). The pollen parent is a very attractive for advanced experiments in large scale trials released from the apple breeding program bright-red apple. by experimental stations (national level 2 trials), of INRA Angers. ‘Ariane’ is a long storage ‘Ariane’ has followed the selection process growers and nurserymen. cultivar, is very attractive and has excellent developed at INRA Angers (Laurens, 1996). fl avor. It carries the Vf gene for scab resistance The cross produced 366 seeds which were sown Description from Malus fl oribunda and is resistant to the in the glasshouse in winter 1980. In total, 313 most common races of Venturia inaequalis plantlets were sprayed with a scab mixture com- Flowering and harvest time. Flowering (Cke.) Wint. prised mainly of race 1 of Venturia inaequalis occurs a few days—2 to 6—depending on the The apple breeding program started in (L. Parisi, personal communication), obtained site and the year- before ‘Golden Delicious’. 1960 at INRA Angers. Four scab-resistant from scabbed leaves collected in INRA’s or- Harvest maturity is the same as ‘Golden Deli- dessert apple cultivars have already been chards. In total, 233 scab-resistant seedlings cious’ (middle of September in Angers). Fruit released: ‘Priam’ was released in 1974 in were selected from this fi rst screening. This mature homogeneously within the tree, so that cooperation with PRI (Purdue University, Rut- amount of resistant seedlings (75%) was high only two pickings are required. ‘Ariane’ is not gers University, and the University of Illinois) as we expect a 50 resistant : 50 susceptible susceptible to preharvest drop. (Decourtye et al., 1974), ‘Querina-Florina’ in ratio from a resistant × susceptible cross. This Fruit. Fruit of ‘Ariane’ is 75% to 100% 1977 (Lespinasse et al., 1985), ‘Baujade’ in could be due to a low level of scab infection blushed bright-red on a yellow background: 1991 (Lespinasse et al., 1992) and ‘Initial’ in in this particular test. The seedlings free from sometimes a slight russet is present in the stem 1999 (Laurens et al., 2000). Two scab-resistant infection were planted in a nursery in June cavity, which does not affect its attractiveness. cultivars released for juice production have been widely planted in France: ‘Judeline’ and ‘Judaine’ (Boré, 1994 a, 1994b). Origin ‘Ariane’ resulted from a cross made in 1979 by Y. Lespinasse between two hybrids from the apple breeding program at Angers: the seed parent resulted from a cross between ‘Florina’ and ‘Prima’, two cultivars with the Vf gene inherited from Malus fl oribunda clone 821 Received for publication 5 Mar. 2004. Accepted for publication 30 June 2004. The authors would like to especially thank their close collaborators who contributed to the characterisation and evaluation of ‘Ariane’ in the fi rst stage of French varietal trials (stage A then level I trials): M. Lelezec, J. Babin and B. Petit at INRA Angers: J.M. Lespinasse at INRA Bordeaux; A. Masseron and L. Roche at the Ctifl experimental center of Lanxade and V. Mathieu at the Ctifl experimental center of Balandran. They also sincerely thank all the people, technicians, and growers who trialed ‘Ariane’ in France and in other countries and gave valuable information on its performance in commercial orchards. Thanks also to E. Grillet and C. Pitiot from NOVADI and representatives from POMALIA who are working intensely to develop and promote ‘Ariane’. 1To whom reprint requests should be addressed; e- Fig. 1. Pedigree of ‘Ariane’. mail [email protected]. 484 HORTSCIENCE VOL. 40(2) APRIL 2005 AAprilHSBook.indbprilHSBook.indb 448484 22/9/05/9/05 44:07:15:07:15 PPMM leucotricha (Ell. & Ev.) Salm. but it is sus- ceptible to the rosy apple aphid (Dysaphis plantaginea). Availability Three partners are involved in new releas- ing INRA cultivars: Agri-Obtentions, an INRA subsidiary company and two French private companies: the SARL (Ltd) NOVADI and the S.A.S. POMALIA. NOVADI was founded in 1997 by 17 French nurserymen with a goal of developing a series of apple cultivars of good eating quality, naturally resistant to the most common diseases. This consolidated group of nurserymen together with some producers and marketing organizations formed a new com- pany named the S.A.S. POMALIA whose main aim is to select the best cultivars from the list proposed by NOVADI. To achieve this, NO- VADI is coordinating a network of large-scale trials (>500 trees/orchard) by nurserymen and growers. It is connected with the national level 2 varietal experimental network managed by Ctifl . ‘Ariane’ was selected as the best cultivar from these trials. It was chosen by POMALIA to be the fi rst cultivar of a series distributed under the generic trademark Les Naturianes. The fi rst commercial plantings of ‘Ariane’ started in Winter 2001–02 with 45,000 trees. In 2002–03, new plantings reached 95,000 trees. These promising results has POMALIA plan- ning to plant 500 ha of ‘Ariane’ in 2006. ‘Ariane’ was registered in the French Of- fi cial Registration List in 2003. The applica- tion for European Registration (CPVO) was submitted on 20 Feb. 2003. Literature Cited Boré, J.M. 1994a. Fiche variétale Judeline. L’Arbo- ricult. Fruitière 472. Boré, J.M. 1994b. Fiche variétale Judaine. L’Arbo- ricult. Fruitière 475. Decourtye, L.M., E.B. Williams, J. Janick, F.H. Emerson, D.F. Dayton, J.B. Mowry, L.F. Hough, and C. Bailey. 1974. ‘Priam’ apple. Hortscience Fig. 2. Fruit of ‘Ariane’ apple. that, intense chemical thinning programs are 94(4):401–402. necessary. Complementary manual thinning Laurens, F. 1996. Use of apple genetic resources Many conspicuous lenticels are present on the is often recommended to get a large number in apple breeding programs at INRA: Present skin. Fruit are fl at globose with a medium size. of good size fruit. Even after a high cropping status and perspectives, p. 69–73. In: H.J. Case All these traits make ‘Ariane’ very attractive season, the tendency toward biennial bearing (ed.). Proceedings of a workshop, 21–24 June and distinct from other cultivars (Fig. 2). is very low. 1995, Wye College, University of London Intl. The fruit eating quality is judged to be ex- Pest and disease susceptibility. ‘Ariane’ Plant Genet. Resour. Inst., Rome. Laurens, F., Y. Lespinasse, and A. Fouillet. 2000. –2 carries the V gene, so it is resistant to the cellent. The fl esh is fi rm (8 to 9kg·cm ), crisp f A new scab resistant apple: ‘Initial’. Acta Hort. and juicy. Taste is fl avourful and mildly acidic; fi ve most common races of Venturia inae- 538:707–710. values of refractometric index and acidity vary, qualis (races 1 to 5). Recent scab tests in the Lespinasse, Y., J.M Olivier, J.M Lespinasse, and M. according to the years, respectively from 13 to greenhouse showed that ‘Ariane’ was highly Lelezec. 1985. “Florina-Querina”: la résistance 15 Brix and from 9 to 10 eq g malic acid/L. susceptibility to different strains of race 6 and du pommier à la tavelure. L’Arboricult. Fruitière The storage ability is excellent: ‘Ariane’ to the new strain EU-NL24 (Parisi et al., 2004). 378:43–47. keeps its harvest characteristics during at least However, in such controlled inoculations, it Lespinasse, Y., J.M.